Happy Birthday John!

John Calvin, that is.

Quoting from Sherry at Semicolon:

On this date in 1509, John Calvin, or Jean Chauvin, was born in Noyon, Picardie, France. 

To mark the day, Sherry is collecting links to posts about  John Calvin.  I’m going to take the lazy (or busy) woman’s easy way out and post a hymn written by John Calvin, a hymn which celebrates the sufficiency of Christ.

I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art

I greet Thee, who my sure Redeemer art,
My only trust and Savior of my heart,
Who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;
I pray Thee from our hearts all cares to take.

Thou art the King of mercy and of grace,
Reigning omnipotent in every place;
So come, O King, and our whole being sway;
Shine on us with the light of Thy pure day.

Thou art the life, by which alone we live,
And all our substance and our strength receive;
Sustain us by Thy faith and by Thy power,
And give us strength in every trying hour.

Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness,
No harshness hast Thou and no bitterness;
O grant to us the grace we find in Thee,
That we may dwell in perfect unity.

Our hope is in no other save in Thee;
Our faith is built upon Thy promise free;
Lord, give us peace, and make us calm and sure,
That in Thy strength we evermore endure.

It’s a fine hymn. If you’d like to hear it sung, listen to this mp3 from Center for Church Music rather than the organ version at Cyberhymnal.

What are the sins forbidden in the fourth commandment?

The sins forbidden in the fourth commandment are, all omissions of the duties required,[1] all careless, negligent, and unprofitable performing of them, and being weary of them;[2] all profaning the day by idleness, and doing that which is in itself sinful;[3] and by all needless works, words, and thoughts, about our worldly employments and recreations.[4]

Click to read more ...

Theological Term of the Week

 

anthropopathism
A figure of speech in which human feeling or emotions are ascribed to God. Sometimes anthropopathism is contrasted with anthropomorphism, with the term anthropomorphism defined narrowly as the attribution of human form to God; but when anthropomorphism is defined more broadly as any language that speaks of God in human terms, then anthropopathism is seen as a special kind of anthropomorphism.

• An example of anthropopathism from 1 Samuel 15:35:

  And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. (ESV)

• Phil Johnson in God Without Mood Swings:

  While it is true that [anthropopathisms] are figures of speech, we must nonetheless acknowledge that such expressions mean something. Specifically, they are reassurances to us that God is not uninvolved and indifferent to His creation.
  
  However, because we recognize them as metaphorical, we must also confess that there is something they do not mean. They do not mean that God is literally subject to mood swings or melancholy, spasms of passion or temper tantrums. And in order to make this very clear, Scripture often stresses the constancy of God’s love, the infiniteness of his mercies, the certainty of His promises, the unchangeableness of His mind, and the lack of any fluctuation in His perfections. “With [God there] is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). This absolute immutability is one of God’s transcendent characteristics, and we must resist the tendency to bring it in line with our finite human understanding.
  

Learn more:

1. Provocations and Pantings: ‘Constrained Impassibility’ and Anthropopathisms
2. New Link! Paul Helm: Divine Impassibility: Why Is It Suffering?
3. Phil Johnson: Does God Have Mood Swings? (mp3)

Related term:

• anthropomorphism

This week’s theological term was suggested by David Kjos of The Thirsty Theologian.

 

Have you come across a theological term that you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

 

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.